


it's a hell of a feeling though

by notsafeforowls



Series: Ink Twice [1]
Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Tattoo Parlor, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-17
Updated: 2019-01-17
Packaged: 2019-10-11 12:33:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,510
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17447084
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/notsafeforowls/pseuds/notsafeforowls
Summary: Ray gets his first tattoo, and maybe takes the first step towards a few other things at the same time.





	it's a hell of a feeling though

**Author's Note:**

> Title from Don't Threaten Me With A Good Time by Panic! At The Disco.

There was something about Ink Twice that made Ray feel strangely comfortable. He wasn’t entirely sure what it was – maybe it was that it was close enough to Palmer Tech that he’d met most of the people who worked there before, or maybe it was that there were no expectations of him when he walked through the awkwardly situated door. He didn’t have to be Ray Palmer: CEO when he was there. He could just walk in, say hello to Sara or Mick or Charlie, and feel comfortable without them watching his every move.

 

He could hear Mick talking to someone in the back room, probably Nora, but Sara was sitting at one of the desks in the front, working away at a tattoo design, occasionally making faces at the reference photos she’d been given.

 

“Why do I always get the ones that look like they’ve been drawn in the dark?” she sighed, holding one of them up to Ray and Charlie. “Does this look like a frog or a toad?”

 

“It looks more like a newt.” Possibly after an unfortunate incident on a road, but Ray didn’t want to sound too rude.

 

Sara’s phone began to buzz and she groaned as soon as she saw the screen. She shouted, “Does anyone want to handle a call from Rip’s lawyer friend, or do I have to take every single one?” loud enough that Ray was sure that people outside the shop could also hear it.

 

“Hell, no,” was Mick’s response from the back.

 

“I’d rather go back to my old life.”

 

That was Nora, then. Ray didn’t know very much about her, other than she’d had a bit of a strange life before moving to the city and getting a job at Ink Twice. According to the sign, Nora Darhk did piercings and tattoos, and the photographs of her work on the wall were beautiful. Her specialty seemed to be lifelike images, in contrast to Sara’s busy, colourful pieces and Mick’s darker, intense work. One of the tattoos, of a snake coiling around a man’s calf, reminded Ray of a snake he’d taken home as a child.

 

“You’re all useless.” Sara answered the phone as she got up. Ray just heard her say, “Hello, Miss Sharpe,” as she walked into one of the small offices, leaving him alone with Charlie.

 

“I can’t believe you’re really going to do this. I was so sure you’d back out,” Charlie grinned, examining the stencil. “Hey, do you want to see the new version again? Nora did a great job. The corgi looks really happy.”

 

The corgi did indeed look very happy. In fact, it looked very proud of its mohawk. Charlie had been telling him for weeks that he’d back out, but looking at the amount of care that had been taken with it – all of the small details on the full plan of the piece, and the carefully made stencil – Ray was more sure than ever that he was definitely leaving with a tattoo.

 

“You’re the famous Ray Palmer.”

 

Ray banged his knee on the table as he turned around, and the first words out of his mouth were, rather regrettably, “I’m famous?” but, as he took in the sight of the woman standing before him, he decided that he could have said something much, much worse.

 

Like _you’re beautiful_. That was probably a bad thing to say to someone you were going to spend a few hours with, especially when they were going to be holding a tattoo machine. Although it was true. Nora _was_ beautiful, with her long dark hair falling around her shoulders, the snake tattoo that Ray could see on her hand – he could see any on her arms, but surely she had others, being a tattoo artist herself – and intense green eyes that lit up as she laughed.

 

“You were the first person I was talk about who didn’t work here, and it’s not every day I have to contact someone to finalise plans for a tattoo of a corgi with a mohawk.” Nora held out her hand. “I’m Nora Darhk.”

 

“Ray Palmer, which you already know, of course, since you already said my name.” It turned out that Ray wasn’t going to die doing something ridiculously heroic (like Nate said he would) or something stupid (like his brother said he would), he was going to die of embarrassment trying to talk to a gorgeous woman who probably already thought he was weird.

 

Charlie sniggered, which earned her an elbow in the ribs from Nora as Nora collected the stencil and a small pile of other pieces of paper from the table.

 

Designs for other clients, Ray assumed. With her talent, she was probably already becoming popular, even though she’d only been part of the team for a few months. She’d been added to the Ink Twice website before she’d even arrived.

 

“Come on, let’s get you started before Charlie can make fun of you again,” Nora said as she gestured for him to follow her through to one of the back rooms.

 

The only rooms through the back that Ray had been to before had been the main office, where everyone could work on designs in peace, away from everyone else, away from the waiting room, and away from the public desks, and Sara’s office. He knew there were a few bathrooms somewhere nearby, but he’d never been in any of the rooms where the piercings or the tattoos were actually done.

 

He followed Nora down the hall, past the main office – Sara gave him a thumbs up and Mick nodded when they saw him – and into a moderately sized, brightly lit room. Like the reception area at the front of the shop, the walls were covered in photographs of tattoos, but the only ones here were Nora’s designs.

 

Ray sat down and made sure that Nora had access to his arm, but kept staring at the photographs on the wall. He could see so many animals there, everything from a snail to what he was sure was an extinct tiger. There were even some mythical creatures – one large photograph was a tattoo that Ray recognised from the website; a back piece that Nora had worked on with Mick, with a dragon wreathed in flames. It was beautiful.

 

“I don’t know that many people who get tattoos, especially not like these, because of a dare and don’t regret them,” Nora said as she quickly went over the area she was going to tattoo with a razor before wiping it down. “So I’m obligated to make sure that you’re definitely not going to try to take me to court over this.”

 

Ray laughed. “No, no, you don’t have to worry about that. It wasn’t really a dare, though. One of my neighbours was mistreating his dog and once day we noticed that he’d left his door open. Charlie dared me to go in and steal the dog, and take him to the shelter as a stray. I did, I would have done it even if she hadn’t dared me to.”

 

“Wow, so you’re a hero.”

 

“Only if you’re a dog.”

 

“Doesn’t your company make a lot of nanites that are used in medical treatments.” Nora flushed when Ray stared at her. “You’re not the only one who can look someone up.”

 

“I guess, but I don’t think I’m really much of a hero for that.” Ray shrugged. “I don’t get to do very much of the real work now because I’m the CEO. Most of my work is board meetings now. Don’t get me wrong,” he added as he saw the sadness flicker across Nora’s face, “I do love what my company does, but sometimes I just… I miss when I was doing the research.”

 

He wasn’t very good at being in charge, if he was honest. He could talk to the board members, do everything that he was supposed to do, but Ray knew that most of them rolled their eyes at him and talked behind his back. His brother was a natural – something Ray was constantly reminded of whenever he saw yet another of his failing ventures somehow being praised – but Ray didn’t have the manipulative talents of Sydney, or Nate’s ability to “schmooze” his way through any situation.

 

In a way, the tattoo was his own quiet rebellion against the life of suits, ties, and paperwork. A tattoo that no one would have ever expected him to get, designed by people (his _friends_ ) that even most of his employees wouldn’t approve of in a hundred years. Oh, Ray could just see

 

“Well,” Nora said as she snapped on a pair of black nitrile gloves, “I’m the last person to tell someone that they can’t change their life, and I have it on good authority that this is the wrong place to come if you’re going to stay in a life you hate. You know what they say in Jurassic Park.”

 

“Life finds a way?”

 

“No, the butterfly effect in chaos theory. Tiny things can change everything. Maybe you getting a tattoo will change your life.”

 

 

 

Ray carefully pulled his sleeve down over his new tattoo. It hadn’t hurt quite as much as he’d expected it to, and there had been almost no blood, although maybe he shouldn’t have expected very much. The only thing that had made him worried that it would bleed a lot had been Nate going on about horror stories he’d read. Ray wasn’t entirely sure how good Nate was going to be as support for Wally, since he seemed to be absolutely terrified of the very idea of tattoos.

 

He watched Nora cleaning up and tidying up, switching out equipment for new or clean versions, getting some things ready for sterilisation in an autoclave, admiring how carefully she worked.

 

And, well, if he was also admiring _her_ , then there was no one else around to see Ray doing it. No one around to see him counting each new piercing that he noticed (a small hoop and a stud in the cartilage of her left ear, a small stud in her nose, and a navel piercing that he caught sight of when she stretched up to add a polaroid photograph of Ray’s tattoo to the wall.) He hadn’t noticed any other tattoos, though.

 

“Any questions about the aftercare or anything else?” Nora asked when she finished up. “Feel free to ask anything that comes to mind, there’s never a stupid question, and I promise that I’ve usually heard worse.”

 

“Do you have any other tattoos?” It was out of his mouth before he had a chance to stop himself from saying it. Ray felt himself blush, even as Nora smiled. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to say that. I understand if you don’t want to tell me, but I saw the one on your hand, and I thought that you’d have more because this is your career, although I haven’t been able to find any others. Not that I’ve been looking anywhere inappropriate.”

 

Nora stepped very close and, very slowly, pulled her black shirt up until it was just under her breasts. It was just high enough that Ray could see the hint of a black lace bra right above the tattoo. His mouth went dry. It was a snake, curling right around and side until its head rests almost halfway across her rib cage.

 

“I have some others,” she said quietly, “but they’re not as easy to show people as this one is.”

 

Ray swallowed hard, trying not to think where else she had tattoos. It was inappropriate. Very inappropriate. She worked with his friends. She’d just seen him almost cry and hadn’t laughed. It wasn’t great to imagine her with much less clothing on than she was currently wearing. “I like it.”

 

“I’m glad.” Nora traced her fingers across the snake and Ray couldn’t look away. “This was the first one I got, and the artist thought it was a bad idea. She tried to talk me out of it for over an hour, but it was not long after I left the—"

 

Nora seemed to suddenly realise something. She pulled her shirt back down and stepped back, coughing loudly.

 

“We should hurry up and go through before the others start talking,” she said.

 

_Others_ meaning Charlie, and maybe Sara, if she was finished talking to Rip’s lawyer friend.

 

 

 

“Did you cry?” was the first question out of Charlie’s mouth when Ray and Nora got back to the reception area. She was draped over one of the desks, adjusting one of the piercings in her eyebrow. She didn’t even look away from the mirror. “If he did, I have to give Nate a twenty when he comes in with Wally.”

 

“I didn’t cry,” Ray protested. He hadn’t. He’d maybe teared up a little bit when Nora had hit an unusually sensitive spot on his arm that Ray hadn’t even been aware of before. “It was close, though.”

 

“Damn, that means I owe him a ten.” Charlie rolled her eyes. “Mick, do me a favour and tell me when they get here. Unless Nate chickens out.”

 

Mick, frowning at the design he was working on, just nodded, said, “Yeah, I’ll tell you when the nerds come in,” and didn’t even look up.

 

Sara looked from Mick to Charlie and back again as Nora took Ray up to the front desk so that he could make his payment. “This is why Ava Sharpe hates us all. I hope you know that.”

 

_Ava_ Sharpe? Ray paid, half listening to Nora recapping the tattoo care instructions, half listening to Sara talking to Mick and Charlie about how they had to at least _try_ to be social, and _try_ to make a good impression and _are the two of you even listening to me?_

 

“Let me know if you want to get another tattoo,” Nora said as she handed Ray a business card. Her name and number were on one side, and the shop’s name and number were on the other. “Or a piercing, since I do those as well.”

 

Ray couldn’t see himself getting another tattoo, but he could definitely see himself wanting to see Nora again.

 

“Do you go to the diner a few blocks away from here?” It had been a bar originally, back when Ray had set up the new Palmer Tech offices a few years ago, and when Ink Twice had first opened, originally with only Rip and Sara working out of there. That had been where Ray had met them, and later Mick, and they’d never managed to change their habit of always going there.

 

Nora nodded, looking thoughtful. “Sometimes, usually when Mick or Charlie want to unwind after work.” She leaned across the counter. “I usually just go to watch Charlie being rejected by Zari—”

 

“Hey, she doesn’t _reject_ me!”

 

“--But I could go for other reasons,” Nora finished, ignoring Charlie’s outburst.

 

Ray bit back the instinctive _oh, am I other reasons?_

 

“I’ll see you there soon then.”


End file.
